RELEVANT EVENTS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER:

Lee Terry, 2010

At some point before or in September of 2010, Rep. Lee Terry requested a report from the Congressional Research Service on the subject of federal authority regarding pipelines (as is clearly referenced in the CRS report).

From these facts, the unavoidable conclusion is that, absent any action by the Nebraska Legislature, no Nebraska agency would have authority over the siting of the pipeline, leaving the field open for TransCanada, while also allowing the company to use Nebraska's eminent domain law. (As far as we can tell, the Secretary of State can, in her discretion, approve or disapprove the project as a whole by granting or denying TransCanada permission to cross the international border between the U.S. and Canada, but absent any major concerns -- primarily environmental in nature, the federal government has no specific statutory basis for denying TransCanda the permit it has requested.)

Unicameral 2010

The Nebraska State Legislature passed a resolution and conducted an interim study regarding the issues associated with oil and natural gas pipelines.

The study did not include an attachment of the September 2010 CRS report sent to Rep. Terry, and further, noted:

"...though we have worked together on this issue, the research conducted by our congressional representatives is not included"

Questions about the interim study report:

Could it be that the interim study by the Nebraska Legislature was the impetus for Terry's request that the Congressional Research Service issue a report about federal law regarding the siting and safety of oil pipelines?

Why wasn't any of the "research conducted by our congressional representatives" included?

Is Terry's CRS report what is referenced in the quote?

If the Unicameral committee did see the CRS report, why were they still confused about the State's regulatory authority over oil pipelines?

Unicameral 2011 Session (January - early June 2011)

UPDATED October 5

There were three bills introduced in the Unicameral this past session with one passing, but none of them dealt with the such questions as siting and overall regulatory authority (more detail about those later).

Lee Terry, August 26, 2011

"I met with the Construction Laborers Local 1140 on 8-26 to talk about work and jobs in their industry as well as ideas as to how the government can help them."

I've included a snap from Rep. Terry's account here:

Click to view "Set" from Rep. Terry's visit on his Flickr stream

Note to Congressman Terry and Staff: Are the pictures on the Flickr account government work product? If so, it is considered PUBLIC DOMAIN and not able to have a copyright associated.

Terry's visit to the Local 1140 is of interest considering its visible advocacy for the pipeline, including the funding sources for their political action committee and other associations, which are covered in more detail in the list of events of "Late September 2010".

Lee Terry, August 2011

Rep. Terry attended a town hall in Valley, Nebraska, during Congress' August recess at which he was questioned about the pipeline project. While the entire dialogue is very interesting, I advise paying particular attention in the last couple of minutes (you can also run the slider over, closer to the end):

Considering that Rep. Terry had the CRS report for almost a year prior to this town hall, and considering that the report explicitly concludes that the Congressman's home state government HAS the authority to pass legislation to site and regulate the pipeline, his answer to the woman at the town hall that "We can't" re-route the pipeline is utterly inexplicable.

Late September 2011

U.S. State Department convenes hearings in Lincoln and Atkinson to get Nebraskans' input about the pipeline.

AFP-NE, which I have been told by a number of reliable sources receives some portion of its funding from J. Peter Ricketts, sends out cards urging recipients to attend the State Dept. hearings, citing a study commissioned by TransCanada about the pipeline's safety and economic benefits. AFP-NE attempts to bus pipeline supporters from Omaha to Lincoln, but must cancel the scheduled bus for lack of interest [2. The information about the cancellation of the bus was given to me by a GiN reader who we have known for some time.]; but AFP-NE does bus supporters from Lincoln to Atkinson and provides free hotel rooms.

For those few who may not know, J. Peter Ricketts is the National Committeeman for the Nebraska Republican Party; there is one Committeeman and one Committeewoman for each state who serve as members of the Republican National Committee. Ricketts has served as an RNC Executive Committee member and at least one additional committee. Also, Ricketts was the GOP party nominee for one of Nebraska's U.S. Senate seats in 2006.

Platte Institute's John McCollister testifies at a State Dept. hearing as a proponent of the pipeline project.

OpenSecrets.org publishes an article, "Surge of Lobbying Fuels Keystone XL Pipeline Project" reporting about TransCanada's extensive lobbying effort, with a particular focus on Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry, noting that he received $56,100 from the oil and gas industry in 2010, making it his #7 contributor for that cycle, and most of them lobbied heavily for his pipeline expediting bill along with labor groups.

In the anchor piece of our series, we mentioned "members" of the Ruling Class, "wannabes", "clients", and "beneficiaries". We said Nebraska has a ruling class and now the whole pipeline issue has allowed us to identify at least some of its clients - labor unions and TransCanada. Can you say Big Labor and Crony Capitalism?

This information is disturbing, there's no doubt.

Congressman Lee Terry either buried an important report and lied about it or he shared it with others and they buried it and he failed to follow-up. Either way...put a fork in him, Nebraska, he's done!

Comments

I remember once upon a time in America, this type of reporting was done by the NEWS media, and you would read about it in a NEWSPAPER. I seem to recall there was a name for it even – yes! investigative journalism, that’s what we called it.